A/N: Request from Atticus1325 and JHMirda back in late May. I only own OC's, everyone else belongs to rightful owners. R.I.P. Bob Hoshkins. Read & Review.
Hollywood, 1947, two children are investigating. The girl is named Cherry and she is dressed like a typical teen of the 1940's and she is accompanied by a boy around her age named Atticus. They were watching a live broadcast filming of a Roger Rabbit cartoon with Baby Herman. Cherry was mostly there because she wanted to be a cartoonist someday inspired by the greats, including the creator of Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman himself, RK Maroon. Cherry and Atticus watched avidly as Roger Rabbit was flung all around getting all sorts of slapstick while Baby Herman lived carelessly and innocently. The cartoon ended when a refrigerator dropped on the rabbit's head, causing him to see birds.
"CUT!" the director snapped.
"What!?" Cherry rushed over with Atticus.
"Cut, cut, cut, cut, CUT!" the director continued to hiss.
"What the hell was wrong with that take!?" Baby Herman asked, revealing he had a gruff, old man voice and was not a cute and innocent baby like people believed him to be.
"Nothing, Baby Herman," the director said to him, lightly, then scolded the rabbit toon. "You were great. It's Roger! He keeps blowing his lines!"
"What happened?" Cherry swiped the script and adjusted her glasses to see what mistake the toon could have possibly made. "I'm a cartoon expert, sir, and in most slapstick I tangled with, someone gets hit, they see stars or tweeting birds!"
"That's the problem!" the director grabbed the script back from her. He then grabbed one of Roger's circling birds. "What's this, Roger?"
"A tweeting bird?" Roger shrugged, sheepishly.
"'A tweeting bird'," the director mocked him, then shoved the script in his face. "Refrigerator falls, rabbit sees stars! Not birds, stars!"
"Aw, leave him alone, I think birds are funnier than stars anyway!" Atticus sneered.
The director turned to them, sharply. "Excuse me, kids, but this is grown up business, now why don't you go play in traffic or something and get off my set?"
Cherry scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I'm sick of being treated like a kid all the time, just leave Roger alone! Give him another chance!"
"No, no other chances!" the director hissed. "Turn the cameras off, lose the lights, someone say launch!"
"LAUNCH!" a man in the distance yelled.
"That's lunch, we're on a half!" the director walked off with a bell ringing to have everyone take a break from the set.
"P-Please, Raoul!" Roger rushed after the director, panicking. "I can give ya stars! The girl's right, give me another chance! Just drop the refrigerator on my head one more time!"
"Roger, I dropped it on your head 23 times already!" the director protested.
"I can take it, don't worry about me!" Roger grabbed onto his jacket sleeve.
"I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about the refrigerator."
Cherry and Atticus watched the rabbit toon smack himself on the head with a mallet to make himself see stars to please the director. Toons were having a rough life lately in Hollywood.
"Toons." a man scoffed, taking a drink.
Cherry and Atticus stopped, mostly Atticus.
"Cherry, do you know who that is?" Atticus pointed to the man.
Cherry tilted her head and squinted her eyes. Her eyes then widened. "Hey, that's Ted Valiant's brother, Eddie! I almost didn't recognize him!"
"He hasn't been the same since Ted died, why don't we go meet him?" Atticus asked, placing a detective cap on his head.
Cherry shrugged, then followed him to meet Eddie.
"What do you kids want?" Eddie spat, sounding cold toward them.
"Excuse me, Eddie, let me just say it's cool to meet you." Atticus greeted.
"That's nice, now beat it, I gotta get going." Eddie scoffed, walking off.
Atticus walked with him like how Roger did with the director. "I wanna be a detective like you one day."
"Very lonely work, kid, make sure ya got a good partner," Eddie advised, sipping more alcohol and slipping it into his jacket pocket. "Shouldn't you two be in school?"
"I'm just here to meet Mr. RK Maroon." Cherry said, with nearly stars in her eyes. "Ever since I first saw cartoons as a little girl, I've always dreamed of becoming a cartoonist myself."
"Actually, I'm on my way to see him myself, I guess you two can come along." Eddie shrugged, finding his way to Maroon's office.
The two made their way over, following him.
"Isn't maroon a school color?" Cherry asked.
"Beats me." Atticus shrugged.
The three had found Maroon's secretary and let them into his office. "Mr. Maroon, a couple of kids and Mr. Valiant are here to-"
The man put his hand up to give him a moment as he watched something with one of his assistants.
"He'll be right with you." the secretary told them, then went back to her desk, closing the doors behind her.
Cherry and Atticus walked in. Atticus studied what Eddie did and tried his hand at being a great detective like him someday. Cherry was thrilled to be in Maroon's office. She felt like she was a religious nut being walked into God's office in high heaven. Eddie waited patiently and quietly explored the room with the kids.
"No, no, NO!" Maroon snapped at his assistant. "Wait until he gets to his feet, then hit him with the boulder!"
"Right, RK." the assistant nodded, then collected his things and left the room.
Maroon turned to them, looking stiff and serious. "How much do you know about show business, Mr. Valiant and kids?"
"Only there's no business like it, no business i know." Eddie replied, cynically.
"Yeah, and there's no business more expensive," Maroon said, walking toward them. "Seriously, what's with the kids?"
"We're on vacation, I wanna be a detective!" Atticus chimed.
"And I wanna be a cartoonist like you!" Cherry squealed, holding the picture of Maroon meeting Felix the Cat.
Maroon chuckled at her and shoved a lollipop into her mouth, stepping toward Eddie. "Anyway, I'm 25 grand over budget on the latest Baby Herman cartoon. You saw the rabbit blowin' his lines, he can't keep his mind on his work, you know why?"
"One too many refrigerators dropped on his head?" Eddie guessed.
"Nah, he's a toon." Maroon replied. "You can drop anything you want on his head, he'll shake it off."
"Kinda like Cherry." Atticus teased.
Cherry hissed, then looked at the various Emmy awards, hoping she could be as well and accomplished as RK Maroon.
"But break his heart, he goes to pieces just like you or me." Maroon continued talking with Eddie and held out a folded newspaper. "Read that."
Cherry and Atticus went to Eddie's sides as he opened the newspaper to see an article about one of the sexiest cartoon characters, Jessica Rabbit. "'Seen cooning over Calamari, with not-so-new Sugar Daddy, was Jessica Rabbit, wife of Maroon Cartoon star Roger"." he then turned to the exhausted cartoonist. "What's this got to do with me?"
"You're the private detective," Maroon answered him. "You figure it out."
"Look, I don't have time for this." Eddie handed the paper back.
"Look, Valiant, his wife's poison, but he think she's Betty Crocker. I want you to follow her, and take those kids with you, the girl has good taste in cartoons and the boy could be your new partner. Get me a couple of nice, juicy pictures I can wise the rabbit up with."
Eddie shook his head, walking away from Maroon. "Forget it, I don't work Toon Town."
"What's wrong with Toontown?" Maroon asked, holding him back. "Every Joe loves Toon Town."
"Then get Joe to do that job, cuz I ain't goin'!" Eddie still protested.
"Whoa, fella," Maroon gripped his shoulder. "You don't wanna go to Toon Town, you don't have to go to Toon Town. Nobody said you had to go to Toon Town anyway. Have a seat, Valiant and guests." he forced the detective and two children down in his seats across from his desk. "The rabbit's wife sings at a joint called the Ink and Paint Club."
"Don't Toons from the 1920's go there?" Cherry asked, leaning forward.
"Indeed they do, missy," Maroon replied, sitting in his chair and putting his feet up. "Toon Revue. Strictly humans only, okay? So, what do you think, Valiant?"
Eddie looked at him, then spotted something strange behind the man which prevented him from answering properly.
"Well?" Maroon leaned forward, demanding that answer.
Eddie stood up and walked behind Maroon's desk. "The job's gonna cost ya 100 bucks, plus expenses."
"100 bucks!?" Maroon shot from his seat. "That's ridiculous."
"So's the job." Eddie told him, coming with a flask of liquor and cup.
"Alright, alright," Maroon tried to settle him. "You got your 100 bucks, and these kids can have anything they want from cigarettes to hula hoops. Have a drink, Eddie."
Eddie glanced at him, then poured himself a drink. "I don't mind if I do."
There were some voices heard outside the window. Eddie took a look and Cherry and Atticus decided to as well. They saw several human men wandering around with Acme products such as wooden boxes, giant blocks of cheese, and animate inanimate objects. There popped out chairs playing loud orchestra music from instruments. There came a gray face with big blue eyes, startling Eddie.
"DUMBO!" Cherry beamed, high-fiving his tiny foot. "Long time no see!"
Maroon stood up to see Eddie hiding under the window like he had been deeply traumatized. "Kinda jumpy, aren't ya, Valiant?"
"It's just Dumbo, Eddie." Cherry told him.
"I know who it is." Eddie glared at them.
"You know Dumbo?" Atticus asked.
"Oh yeah, we go waaay back." Cherry replied, smiling at the flying baby elephant.
"I got him on loan from Disney," Maroon explained why Dumbo was around. "Him and half the cast of Fantasia. The best part is, they work for peanuts!" he threw peanuts out the window for the elephant.
Dumbo sucked them all up in his trunk and flew off, happily.
"Well, I don't work for peanuts." Eddie shook his head, showing the check Maroon wrote for him. "Where's the other $50?"
"Let's call the other $50 a carrot to finish the job," Maroon chuckled.
"You've been hangin' around rabbits too long." Eddie mentally rolled his eyes. He then walked out the office with Cherry and Atticus. "Alright, Arthur, you can come with me to solve this case, but don't be askin' me for any money, now."
"It's Atticus, and don't worry, I won't mind." the boy corrected as they walked.
The kids explored to see all sorts of humans and toons working together. It was a strange, but interesting sight. There were indeed Fantasia characters, such as ballerina ostriches and the brooms from the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
The ballerina hippo seemed very concerned about what was going on, nearly leaning on the humans. She then noticed them and backed up. "Oh, excuse me."
The group kept walking and passed some auditioning cows. There then came a trolley, ringing and Eddie decided to go for it. "Come on, kids!" he called.
Cherry and Atticus ran with him. Only, they didn't seem to be going inside like the other people up front. They went to the back as the doors were about to close and Eddie took out his check for the man, nearly closing the doors on them.
"What do I look like, a bank?" the man scoffed, allowing Cherry and Atticus to ride in, but closed out Eddie.
Cherry and Atticus took a window seat and watched Eddie sitting on the back end with a couple of street children, with another rushing for the trolley.
"Hey mister, ain't ya got a car?" one of the boys asked as he took out a cigarette.
"Who needs a car in LA?" Eddie jokingly asked. "We got the best public transportation system in the world."
Cherry and Atticus shrugged, then enjoyed the ride as they rode through Hollywood.
"I can't believe I got to be in RK Maroon's office... This is the most exciting moment of my entire life!" Cherry beamed like a psyched fan girl.
"I can't believe I'm gonna be a real detective, this is gonna be the best vacation ever!" Atticus gushed. "I wonder if I'll get to have a nice dame come into my office for inspection."
Cherry scoffed and rolled her eyes at him, glancing out the window to see the sights and sounds of Los Angeles.